Hip (slang)
Hip is a slang for fashionably current''B. Kirkpatrick ed., ''Roget's Thesaurus (1998) p. 570 and in the know. To be hip is to have "an attitude, a stance" in opposition to the "unfree world", or to what is square or prude. Being hip is also about being informed about the latest ideas, styles, and developments. Hip, like cool, does not refer to one specific quality. What is considered hip is continuously changing. Origin of term The term hip is recorded in African American Vernacular English (AAVE) in the early 1900s. In the 1930s and 1940s, it had become a common slang term, particularly in the African-American-dominated jazz scene. The exact origin of hip is unknown. There are many different explanations for the etymology of hip, but they remain unproven''. OxfordWords blog|date=2015-06-10|work=OxfordWords blog|access-date=2017-10-25|language=en-US}} Research and speculation by both amateur and professional etymologists suggest that "hip" is derived from an earlier form, ''hep, but that is disputed. Many etymologists believe that the terms hip, hep, and hepcat derive from the west African Wolof language word hepicat,James Campbell, This is the Beat Generation (1999) p. 36 which means "one who has his eyes open".Holloway, Joseph E. The Impact of African Languages on American English. Retrieved on 2006.10.05. Some etymologists reject this, however, tracing the origin of this putative etymology to David Dalby, a scholar of African languages who tentatively suggested the idea in the 1960s, . and some have even adopted the denigration "to cry Wolof" as a general dismissal or belittlement of etymologies they believe to be based on "superficial similarities" rather than documented attribution.e.g. Grant Barrett, "Humdinger of a Bad Irish Scholar ", in "The Lexicographer's Rules", 2007.11.09 Alternative theories trace the word's origins to those who used opium recreationally. Because opium smokers commonly consumed the drug lying on their sides, or on the hip, the term became a coded reference to the practice;P. Lee, Opium Culture (2006) p. 2 and because opium smoking was a practice of socially influential trend-setting individuals, the cachet it enjoyed led to the circulation of the term hip by way of a kind of synecdoche. This etymology is, however, rejected by Sheidlower. Slang dictionaries of past centuries give a term hip or hyp meaning melancholy or bored, shortened from the word hypochondriac. However, this usage, more prevalent around 1800, was virtually extinct by 1900. Development The word hip in the sense of "aware, in the know" is first attested in a 1902 cartoon by Tad Dorgan,Jonathan Lighter, Random House Dictionary of Historical Slang and first appeared in print in a 1904 novel by George Vere Hobart, Jim Hickey, A Story of the One-Night Stands, where an African-American character uses the slang phrase "Are you hip?" Early currency of the term (as the past participle hipped, meaning informed) is further documented in the 1914 novel The Auction Block by Rex Beach: :His collection of Napoleana is the finest in this country; he is an authority on French history of that period—in fact, he's as nearly hipped on the subject as a man of his powers can be considered hipped on anything.Rex Beach, (1914) The Auction Block, New York: A. L. Burt, p.91–92. After the Second World War, the term moved into general parlance. The English humorist P.G. Wodehouse has his aristocratic narrator, Bertie Wooster, use the term "get hep" in his 1946 novel Joy in the Morning. Jack Kerouac described his mid-century contemporaries as "the new American generation known as the 'Hip' (the Knowing)";James Campbell, This is the Beat Generation (1999) p. 84 In 1947, Harry "The Hipster" Gibson wrote the song "It Ain't Hep" about the switch from hep to hip: Hey you know there's a lot of talk going around about this hip and hep jive. Lots of people are going around saying "hip." Lots of squares are coming out with "hep." Well the hipster is here to inform you what the jive is all about. The jive is hip, don't say hep That's a slip of the lip, let me give you a tip Don't you ever say hep it ain't hip, NO IT AIN'T It ain't hip to be loud and wrong Just because you're feeling strong You try too hard to make a hit And every time you do you tip your mitt It ain't hip to blow your top The only thing you say is mop, mop, mop Keep cool fool, like a fish in the pool That's the golden rule at the Hipster school You find yourself talking too much Then you know you're off the track That's the stuff you got to watch Everybody wants to get into the act It ain't hip to think you're "in there" Just because of the zooty suit you wear You can laugh and shout but you better watch out Cause you don't know what it's all about, man Man you ain't hip if you don't get hip to this hip and hep jive Now get it now, look out Man get hip with the hipster, YEAH! Got to do it! The 1936 drama film August Week End uses the term "hip" in dialogue. See also References Further reading *Anatole Broyard, 'A Portrait of the Hipster' Partisan Review June 1948 External links *Crying Wolof: Does the word hip really hail from a West African language? by Jesse Sheidlower at Slate * "Hip Song (It Does Not Pay to be Hip)", lyrics of Shel Silverstein song recorded by Chad Mitchell Trio on 1964 album Reflecting Category:Slang Category:1940s slang Category:1950s slang Category:1960s slang